New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is already throwing in the towel on his five-year plan for Atlantic City. If lawmakers want to put a statewide expansion of casino gambling on this fall’s ballot, Christie would “have absolutely no problem with that question going on the ballot right away … The competition’s only going to grow, in New York [where Saratoga Casino & Raceway is adding a hotel and electronic table games] in particular. And so if we could plant our flag firmly in the ground, I think it would make the project even more successful.”
This doesn’t make a referendum a done deal. The Legislature has two months to get the question passed, in order for it to be printed on November’s ballots. Besides, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D, below), whose opinion arguably carries more weight than Christie’s, doesn’t 
want the vote being taken in a low-turnout year (only assemblymen will be up for election) and would prefer to wait until 2016.
Christie’s support also comes with a few caveats, such as new-casino jobs being offered first to workers displaced by Atlantic City’s recent wave of casino closures. He also wants taxes from projects such as the all-but-proposed Hard Rock International/Meadowlands megaresort to go to Atlantic City. Hard Rock is already throwing out some pretty generous revenue estimates, claiming it could generate a half-billion in tax dollars. Nor does Jersey City want to be left out of the consideration for a potential casino site.
Certain proponents — who could extrapolate some vague language by Christie into an endorsement — want to siphon off some of the tax 
revenues to prop up the state’s forever-ailing racehorse industry. Monmouth Park doesn’t stop there but covets a casino, too. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D, right) is a proponent of expanded gambling at Monmouth, as is colleague Joe Kyrillos (R), who would confine it to VLTs, calling a Vegas-style casino “something I think many people wouldn’t like to see at Monmouth Park … every racing facility across America has had the benefits of revenue from a slots or casino operation. We have to make sure we pump life into the facility itself and keep it vibrant, which protects farms and open space and an equestrian culture that is a part of the state.”
* Creditors of Caesars Entertainment must be experiencing chagrin after Judge Benjamin Goldgar ruled that the company would remain in charge of its sprawling bankruptcy for six months longer. “The sheer mass weight, volume and complication here is extraordinary,” Goldgar ruled. The extension into mid-November will, among other things, give Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. time to try and get its REIT conversion into place. Creditors had wanted an immediate takeover of the Chapter 11 proceeding or at least to shave two months off Caesars’ timeline, but Goldgar gave them nix.
* “Verbose, repetitive, argumentative and confusing.” That’s what the Massachusetts Gaming Commission calls a lawsuit by Boston 
that would strip Wynn Resorts of its casino license in Everett. According TV station WGBH, “The city says Wynn has not reached a financial compensation deal with the city and has not applied for necessary permits for the casino’s main entry, which goes through Boston.” Mayor Martin “McCheese” Walsh may even try to enjoin Wynn from breaking ground. If this is how things are now done in Boston, the Walsh administration deserves to be called “anti-business,” although Steve Wynn has done an excellent job of biting his tongue so far on that matter.
